Background: Henry James famously labeled Charlotte Cushman’s feminist
circle in Rome, “that strange sisterhood of American ‘lady sculptors’ who at one time settled upon the seven hills in a white marmorean
flock.” Singling out Edmonia for special abuse, he ignored her name in favor of a sneering figure of speech, “One of the sisterhood, if I am not mistaken, was a
negress, whose colour, picturesquely contrasting with that of her plastic material, was the pleading agent of her fame.”
First-names refer to Harriet "Hatty" Hosmer, Anne Whitney, Abby
Manning, Princess CarolyneSayn-Wittgenstein and Charlotte Cushman. "Abbé Liszt"
is Franz Liszt, and "Storys" refers to artist-writer
William Wetmore Story and his wife.

Had she lived
today, Edmonia might puzzle over Henry James lumping her into “that strange
sisterhood.” She had ample occasion to curse her isolation – and her own
hand in it. Yet, she chose to swim alone, as she had done in her last year at
Oberlin, rather than drift into backwaters of low regard and drown in self-pity.

In December 1868,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had taken up quarters in Rome for the winter. He
settled in the brand new hotel, the Costanzi, that rose high above Edmonia’s
modest shop.[369]
Naturally, he became the darling of Rome’s English-speaking high society. The
bright-eyed, white-haired poet was more than a luminary in Edmonia’s eyes. He
was her muse. He had inspired her most popular works and every one of the “sisterhood”
knew it.

A clear mark of the
exclusion Edmonia suffered, not one of her boosters in Rome thought to introduce
her to the author or to even point him to her gallery of Hiawatha
figures right next to his hotel. Not Hatty, not Anne and Abby, not Abbé Liszt
and Princess Carolyne, and certainly not the Storys ever paused for Edmonia’s
sake as they dined him in their apartments and toured him about the city.

A year earlier,
Charlotte had roused friends to send The Wooing to Boston’s YMCA. She
sent more of the Danish artist’s plaster composers to the Music Hall. For
Edmonia, however, she and the rest vanished like butterflies in the wind. Their
behavior suggests that word of Edmonia’s gaffe with the Sewalls must have
scorched Charlotte’s ears when she visited Boston in late October – if not
earlier.[370]

Edmonia was as out
of fashion as a Confederate dollar. Only Elizabeth Peabody, back in America and
ever loyal, expressed concern about her financial crisis. As a reader of the Commonwealth
and seemingly aware of the social gulf between Edmonia and the sisterhood,
Elizabeth felt she had to relay her alarm to Charlotte in Rome!

Alas, Charlotte had
left Rome in May after finding a lump in her breast. She eventually responded
from England with a remarkable sham: “I ever do all I can for her, as does
Emma Stebbins.”[371]

If the stresses of
error, isolation, debt, and a sluggish season were not sufficiently maddening,
there was also the conflict with Margaret Foley, the former mill worker turned
sculptor whose studio sat halfway between the Piazzas Barberini and di Spagna.[372]
Margaret sulked and Edmonia spit “a good deal of aboriginal venom” in a
feud so bitter that gossips called it “war.” Letters fail to give details,
but events suggest ample cause beyond the ill will common between Irish and
colored Americans.

The self-taught
Margaret had created a memorial portrait of Col. Shaw in Rome after his death.
She must have felt thwarted to find a colored newcomer had swamped the ready
market in Boston with the Shaw family blessing. In late 1865, she returned to
Boston for a year and rented the very studio Edmonia had just vacated. Mr.
Longfellow gave her a sitting there. Back in Rome, a critic called her profile
of him “exquisite workmanship, and true to life.”[373]
It was a highlight of her collection, but critics extolled Edmonia at far
greater length. Now Edmonia bathed in crowds of prime retail traffic while
Margaret languished in a marginal location.

Margaret also raged
against Charlotte Cushman, who had brought her to Rome in 1862. In Charlotte’s
reply to Elizabeth Peabody cited above, the actress expressed anguish over “Miss
Foley’s trepidations and prejudices against me.” Was it that Charlotte had
favored the “colored sculptor” with her fund-raising patronage and not the
Irish cameo artist?

Her back to the
wall, Edmonia dug in. She desperately needed a new sign of success. Capturing
the author of her mythic lovers could ease her pain. An excellent portrait might
redeem her in Boston, where Longfellow was held in the highest esteem.

She put her low
status to work. Never introduced, she could scrutinize him on the streets of
Rome while remaining as anonymous as a city pigeon. She caught glimpses as he
strolled, waited for a carriage, or went to lunch or dinner. She likely stalked
him in front of his hotel, down the street, and as he headed for G. P. A. Healy’s
studio around the corner.[374]
With skills learned as a child in the woods, she evaded his notice. Longfellow
was likely preoccupied with learned figures of speech – describing Rome for
example, “like king Lear staggering in the storm and crowned with weeds.”[375]

Skilled and sure,
her fingers flew at the clay – maybe the last scrap at her disposal. Although
the man was always fully clothed and wore a fine hat outside, she made him as
hatless and bare-chested as the masters of Olympus.[376]
It was the portrait look most often adopted by sculptors who followed the
ancient Greeks.Longfellow was, after all, a member of the modern literary pantheon. In
the ever-wishful idiom of the day, the depiction could show him as more god than
mortal man.

Still, she surely
longed to meet him. He would leave Rome after Carnival like every other tourist.

In the end, their
introduction was by chance, as remarkable as it was humble. Longfellow’s
youngest brother,[377]
whose report Anne Whitney captured with scant detail, browsed into her studio.
There was no mention of the damp rags that must have covered the soft clay. Nor
was there much of their conversation.

Edmonia likely
recognized him as a member of the Longfellow party. She probably greeted him and
asked if she could help. Did she invite him to view the bust and then remove the
cloth? Or, was she wily, slipping the cloth away and then silently guiding her
prey like a rabbit to a trap?

No matter. To his
utter surprise, the Longfellow brother suddenly came eye-to-eye with the poet’s
stern visage. It stared back at him, seizing his attention, spurring his
excitement. Thrilled, he dashed next door and fetched the family.

As they admired her
work, perhaps they discussed Evangeline,[378]
the Civil War, the Fields, and the many other people they knew in common. No
doubt, some conversation turned on the Longfellow-inspired array in her studio.
It is likely she offered him his pick.[379]

The only person
dissatisfied with the image was Edmonia, according to Anne’s letter home. She
begged the poet sit for a moment while she corrected his nose.

Anne Whitney was
finally impressed by Edmonia’s skill. She wrote to her sister that the family
received the portrait as one of the best, praise confirmed by the Spectator.[380]
That was also the consensus at the Art-Journal in London. Within a
year, its critic enthusiastically called her work “the truest and finest
likeness of the poet I have ever seen.”[381]

Confidence and
determination renewed, Edmonia resolved to brave her critics in Boston. She
first sent photos, hoping to raise funds to copy it in marble. Someone, probably
one of Longfellow’s family, had tipped her that Harvard lacked a good portrait
and hoped for a donation. She also wished to soothe the soreness connected with
the sudden arrival of Forever Free and to raise money to pay her costs.

All
she needed was money for passage. It was money she could only dream of having.
She had stretched her credit tighter than the old arrow maker’s bowstring.

NOW
AVAILABLE: The
Indomitable Spirit of Edmonia Lewis. A Narrative Biography, by
Harry Henderson ( co-author of A History
of African American Art from 1792 to the Present) and Albert Henderson,
winner of the eLit GOLD award:
"Illuminating Digital Publishing Excellence."
Independent Opinion: "The Hendersons’ monument
of research and craftsmanship seeks to give Lewis the consideration that she has
been denied—not dissimilar to the artist’s own commitment to proving her
competitors and critics wrong, demonstrating that a minority could take on the
hegemonic tradition of fine arts. The book provides crystalline accounts of
Lewis’s feuds and mentorships, as well as rich illustrations of the works
being discussed throughout. Overall, the authors deliver a well-constructed mix
of primary resources, critical analysis and literary flourishes." - Kirkus
Reviews. "Thank you so much for your excellent research ... Your work
on Edmonia Lewis will be used for many years to come by scholars, art
historians, art collectors and anyone interested in knowing more about this
outstanding woman" - Dr. Sheryl Colyer. "a
key acquisition for any arts or Afro-American history holding. The authors'
attention to precise scholarship provides all the details of a solid linear
history and biography but the end result is anything but dry: it reads with the
passion and drama of good literature" - Midwest Book Review"
A definitive biography" Washington
Times
""
- Goodreads.

More about The Indomitable Spirit of
Edmonia Lewis, by Harry Henderson and Albert Henderson

Edmonia
Lewis (1844-1907) was the first famous “colored sculptor,” one of a
generation of feminist literary sculptors, and the first to idealize her
African- and American-Indian heritages in stone. She flourished from 1864
through 1878, shuttling between Rome, Italy, and the United Sates as proof that
the mean myth of white male superiority in the fine arts was false. Aided
by the most famous abolitionists, she “crossed swords” with anti-slavery
reformer Lydia Maria Child, and challenged the references of Nathaniel
Hawthorne.

Based
primarily on decades of research by Harry Henderson (co-author with Romare
Bearden of A History of African
American Artists from 1792 to the Present), The Indomitable Spirit
of Edmonia Lewis offers a fresh look at Edmonia Lewis's life and art – and
how she helped shape today's world. Revealing more essential facts and
sources than ever before collected and published, it clears away the
considerable misinformation about her origins, progress, demeanor, and final years.

It
includes more than 100,000 words, 50 illustrations (12 in color), 800 hyperlinkednotes, a bibliography, and a catalog of more than 100 works with notes on
more than twenty museums that collect her work.

Following
are a few highlights:

Fresh
evidence, never before collected and collated, argues a novel motive for her
erotic masterwork, the Death of Cleopatra, which sits apart in her œuvre like a hussy in a small town church. Newly realized sources
also change our view of her childhood and provide ample support to refute
distortions of her personal character, sexuality, and appearance.

Born
near Albany NY and orphaned early in life, Lewis grew up with Indians on the New
York / Canadian border. Her romantic illustrations of Longfellow’s “Song of
Hiawatha,” which were considered authentic because of her Indian background,
produced many more orders than her now-iconic Emancipation themes, her many
portraits, or her religious works.

Under
the sponsorship of her Haitian-born half-brother, a barber who had followed the
Gold Rush to Bozeman MT, she was educated in New York and Ohio. After some years
at Oberlin College, she suffered humiliations, bullying, and a brutal assault.
Young John Mercer Langston advocated on her behalf, but not before her local
reputation was ruined. Because the College did not allow her to finish her
degree, she went to Boston to study art – a unique goal for a young woman of
color.Her brother continued to play
a major role in her life.

Lydia
Maria Child, a famous abolitionist, egalitarian, and the source of the “tragic
mulatta” theme in American literature, became a great admirer. Soon, however,
they were at odds. Child praised her in public but privately opposed her in a
neurotic spiral that ended in complete alienation.

Lewis
moved to Italy where she found a society of artists made famous by Nathaniel
Hawthorne in “The Marble Faun.” A few helped her, but most cursed her
invasion of a world long dominated by white males. It was, in fact, a society of
ferocious rivalries that privately embarrassed the prudish Salem-born author

She
became a member of a Catholic circle that included fellow sculptor Isabel Curtis
Cholmeley and composer Franz Liszt. Acknowledging the Jesuit missionaries who
taught her prayers as a child, she took Roman Catholic baptism with the name
“Maria Ignatia” as an adult in Italy. Thus she returned to America in 1869
as a member of a minority religion by choice while suffering biases against her
native color, gender, and class. The news made little difference to
African-American members of Protestant sects who embraced her as their hero.

Decades
later, Henry James identified her with "that strange sisterhood of American
'lady sculptors' who at one time settled upon the seven hills in a white,
marmorean flock." Yet the sisterhood, feminists who orbited lesbian actress
Charlotte Cushman, had abandoned Lewis after raising money to send one of her
works to Boston.

A
decade of regular tours took her west to San Francisco and San Jose, and along
the way to Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, St. Paul, Cincinnati, Indianapolis,
Cleveland, Syracuse, Albany, and New York City. She took satisfaction from her
assault on racist myths in the United States, but she retired to Europe, where her color was rarely
at issue. Frederick Douglass, who had told her to ‘go east’ in 1863, met her
again in Rome in 1887, according to his diary. Her life after that was a mystery
for more than 100 years, until our recent discovery of her 1907 death
certificate and related documents in England.

The
newly industrialized press played an enormous role in making celebrities. (It
had even turned fiction into artistic fact, for example, as readers applied
Hawthorne’s hyperbole to W.W. Story’sstatue,
“Cleopatra,” with lasting effect.) It made Lewis internationally known
shortly after she arrived in Rome. It continued to recognize her through the era
of Reconstruction but not thereafter. Writers, who rarely shared her race,
religion, or gender, filtered the content of their interviews. Their sometimes
hostile coverage nonetheless reflects a woman determined to make a statement.
Thus our Prologue to her biography begins, “Think of Edmonia Lewis as an
artist at war.”

As
an artist at war, Lewis was a rare instrument for social change in the aftermath of the
Civil War. Emerging in “the Athens
of America,” then heading for Rome, she pressed her case for equality with
help from the Republican press. Among her greatest achievements, she became the
only artist of color invited to exhibit at the 1876 Centennial. She created a
sensation, regularly appearing in person with her marble “Death of Cleopatra” and
several other works while most artists left their work unattended.

Her
biography reveals private letters, public documents, essays, hundreds of news
items, reviews of her work, museum collections, and more than two dozen
published interviews. It shows how a world biased against her color, class,
gender and religion received her during her lifetime – sometimes cordially,
sometimes with harsh rebuke. The narrative opens an abundance of previously
unrecognized sources, reinterprets important relationships, names missing works,
and corrects the identification of an important portrait. Students of the
nineteenth century will find it a cool counterpoint to the bitter rage raised by
women’s suffrage, Civil War, and Reconstruction.

Our
examination of Lewis’s life provided a basis for new considerations of her
art. Readers familiar with her legendary icons of race may be surprised by her
many portraits, her religious works, and her untold moves to Paris and London.
Unexpected are the clashes of art and culture as she attempted to honor the
liberation of her father’s people. Fans of Lewis will also find long-standing
questions addressed:

=>
Where did she turn when she stopped sculpting ethnic themes?

=>
Where, when, and how did she die – a mystery for more than 100 years?

=>
Why did she seemingly change the subject – “For this reason
the Virgin Mary is very dear to me" –
when asked about her depiction of Hagar in the wilderness?

=>
Where did she live in Boston, and why did her encounter with a bronze Ben
Franklin leave her reeling?

=>
How did she adapt non-classical American subjects, such as “Forever Free”
and “The Old Arrow-Maker,” to the strict rules of neoclassical sculpture?

=>
Why did she have to stalk Henry Wadsworth Longfellow through the streets of Rome
to sculpt her celebrated portrait of him?

=>
Where were her studios in Rome, and how did she receive racist visitors from
America?

=> How was her "Death of Cleopatra" related to Hawthorne's "Marble Faun" and WW Story's famous statue?

=>
How often did she tour America, and how did she deal with hostile interviewers?

=>
How did wealthy English Catholics embrace her?

=>
How do Lewis’s illustrations of “Song of Hiawatha,” considered
"authentic," compare with the
observations of anthropologists?

=>
What role did photography play in her career, and how did she become a self-made
businesswoman?

=>
How did she enter her work in the 1876 Centennial expo, which had blocked all
colored people from taking part (even contributing donations)?

=>
What were her relationships with fans, mentors, and fellow sculptors, and why
did her American boosters turn on her?

=>
Who were her rivals, her best friends, and her worst enemies, and what was her
relationship with the suffragettes?

=>
What was her Indian name in the Chippewa language, and when did she ask to be
called “Edmonia” instead of “Mary?”

=>
What was her sexual orientation, and what was the problem with her sculpting a
black woman?

=>
Who were the important African-American clergymen whose portraits she sculpted?

#

Lewis
associated with top abolitionists and celebrated literary figures. Her life
should be of
special interest to: students of African-American
studies, American studies, art history, women’s history, American history,and
American-Indian studies, as well as scholars of race,gender, the 19th-century
American novel and popular culture.

#

About
the authors:

Harry Henderson was co-author with Romare Bearden of the
“landmark” History of African-American
Artists from 1792 (Pantheon, 1993) and 6
Black Masters of American Art (Doubleday, 1972). Albert Henderson edited Publishing
Research Quarterly for six years and has contributed to a number of learned journals and books.